Netflix’s Coup: The Next “Crouching Tiger”

By

Shalini Ramachandran

Sep 30, 2014 3:11 pm ET

Netflix hasn’t shown much reverence for Hollywood traditions. The streaming video provider releases TV shows in bulk, rather than one episode a week. It has shown a penchant for investing in the kind of dark, highly serialized TV dramas that not long ago were seen as hard to monetize. It is licensing TV shows for multiple countries at once – not the usual approach.

Now comes the latest move: on Monday, Netflix said it is backing the sequel to Academy Award-winning “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” in a deal with The Weinstein Company. Netflix will premiere the martial arts movie at the same time as the sequel debuts in certain Imax theaters. The movie will be released next August.